Bring on the meds

I've been in a happy world of disbelief about my Lyme this week.  Very few times I would feel the joint pain, the brain fog, the nausea.  And at one point I forgot why I was restricting myself from wonderful food like burgers and ice cream.  And my world came crashing down this morning with the squeezing sharp pressure in my neck that has slowly made its way down my spine.  My 8 hours of sleep did me no good, I was still tired and have been tired all day.

Add to this, I picked up my meds today.  Egads, I've been on my diet and no meds?!  What gives?  Well, my health insurance provider for starters.  I gave them the prescription a week ago.  They call for every little thing  yet they didn't call me to tell me when my prescription was ready.  When I called and asked on the status, they said it was ready days ago.  Then why no phone call?  Because the pharmacy can't do that.  Hmm, but the rest of your organization can clog up my voicemail all day.  Alrighty then.

So I'm mentally gearing up for my real fight between me and Lyme.  I'm very sure that this round of meds will do just what Dr. S says it will and get rid of the infection.  This does mean no more cheating of any kind.  The meds are like school yard bullies and can smell fear and weakness a mile away and get you when you expect it and continue to attack you when you don't expect it.  Kefir for the next few months will be my probiotic bff.  My kefir has been growing steadily, which is awesome.  I need to order the Body Ecology's Innergy Biotic.  I haven't ordered it.  I'm privately in denial.  Not that the product doesn't work, I'm sure it'll do wonders for me.  But it means that I'm not as well as I feel.  And today has been proof with the pain creeping back.

The swelling though, I'm beginning to see the slenderness of my ankles, which is fantastic.  Drinking water and sleeping helps.  Not solve, but helps.

And with taking the meds, that means exercising.  I'm not sure what to do.  High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) on the bike, which I love because it's 20 minutes of hard work that pays off.  Or walking for 30 minutes, which after awhile, it like watching paint dry.  Even fast walking HIIT does something a little bit, but I'm noticing my body doesn't push itself as hard because the belt on the treadmill is taking some of the work away.  And I've been reading so much about stretching that I need to revamp my morning routine and possibly my evening routine, to fit it in.

But even with all that, it's about food.  I need to eat to live right.  And it's hard when your super kind boss takes you out for lunch or someone offers you a donut or cinnamon bun. I've yet to find the best excuse.  And even when the excuse seems airtight, the pressure from people to eat the food is strong and I don't hold up to it well.  Should I claim diabetes?  Saying it's the Doctor's orders mean nothing.  I don't mean it in a bad way because the people I work with are sweet and kind.  But it's like, "That's nice.  So, you want this donut?"  And as a sugar addict, how can I refuse?

Zumba!

First I will say, exercising since being reinfected has taken more out of me.  When I wake up in the mornings now, particularly this week, it's like my body is lead, bloated balloon and the joints are sharp and painful.  Two days this week I let my body win and I didn't go to the gym.  But by day 3, I had enough and I worked out.  I felt good afterwards but getting to that point to work out was a lot mentally.

So yesterday, my friend Patrick asked if I would go with him and a co-worker to Zumba.  I've done Zumba and I like it.  But this Zumba class was at a local Latin restaurant with drinking.  It was so unusual to me that I had to say yes!  It started at 10:00 pm.  So Patrick picked me up to go to the restaurant.  What was surprising to me was the fair number of Asian women among the Hispanic women.  As we waited for the instructors, I had a drink.  A big no-no in the Lyme Disease diet from Dr. S and a big no-no in general for those who are chronically inflamed.  But I haven't had a drink in months and I do love a good drink.  So I had one.  Applaud the willpower to stay with just one.

Then the instructors came.  It was like Zumba on acid.  I've never seen instructors like this in my Zumba experience.  And the restaurant was already warm, so when you have 60 people dancing to Zumba on acid, it's a sweat dripping mess.  I haven't sweat like that in my life.  I had a ton of fun, but after the first hour (!), I had to ask Patrick to take me home.  I felt like I was going to pass out.  I know, I know, I should have drank water.  But the restaurant wouldn't let people bring in water, so if I was going to splurge on a beverage, let it be a margarita.  There's plenty of water at home.  

I still had a buzz and my husband was on the computer when I came back.  As I chugged my water and talked to him about the evening, the Lyme began to flare.  My suspicion is on the alcohol, but it was a hot room and an intense workout, so who knows.  But the brain fog was horrible.  I would talk to my husband and it's like my train of thought would hit a blank wall.  At one point, when it happened in the conversation, I heard crickets.  But it turns out the crickets were noisier than usual last night.  To me, it's disconcerting when that happens and I'm not on alcohol.  But last night, with my buzz, if I lost my train of thought or the words just wouldn't come out like I wanted, I didn't care.  And it was liberating.  Probably not so much to my husband as he's trying to follow his wife's conversation.  

I showered and went to bed and this morning, I had a hangover.  I was horrified.  I've drank more than one drink in my past to get a hangover.  I'll just say it takes more than 2.  But this morning it was a hangover with the vicious headache and the disorientation.  I was irritated.  It seems with the Lyme, I'm back to level -10 with drinking.  Worse than a rookie.  I'm not trying to maintain a status, but if you're going to drink socially, you should be able to without unpleasant effects in the morning.  

I tried to get through my errands for the morning, which I did, but by noon, I was wiped out.  I laid down to take a short nap, maybe 45 minutes.  Instead it took 3 hours.  And after 3 hours I was still groggy.  But I feel better than I did this morning.  Thank God for weekends.  I couldn't imagine feeling the way I did this morning and attempt to go to work.  

But after last night, I think I'll have to entertain Zumba as part of my cardio.  

Hourglass Pt. 2

So with the bloating and now sudden weight, I exercise.  My goal is to have an hourglass shape or close to it.  Kind of hard when you're bloated no matter what.  But this site gives pretty good advice on how to achieve it.  So lately I've been attempting the high intensity interval training on the treadmill at the gym.  Warm up for 15 minutes walking and then speed walk and recover for 10 minutes.  I love what it's doing for my legs.  But it doesn't seem to do anything for the bloating.

This bloating is relentless.  I'm drinking my homemade kefir and lots of water.  And came home and rested an hour.  No dice.  But my happy moment was I did my weight lifting for my arms and I saw definition in the mirror as I was working out.  Yes, the weight lifting hurts in my joints.  But I figure it hurts anyway, so at least work out my arms. 

But I do like working out.  Finally.